Do you want a rich long life? Of course you do. It turns out that marrying an Asian person may give you the highest chance of outliving most people! Let me share how I came to this conclusion.
After publishing my post on how life expectancy greatly depends on wealth and location, a couple of commenters asked whether I had factored in race as one of the variables. I did not.
Instead of factoring in race, I factored in household income, net worth, location, and social influences as to how we might be able to take action to live longer.
Given we are all born a certain race, we can’t take action to change our race even if some races do live longer than others. So there was no point in me focusing on race.
I also don’t like focusing on race because it might pit people against each other. Getting told your race isn’t doing as well as another race is not encouraging. And getting told your race is doing better may give you a false sense of confidence.
The advice on Financial Samurai is applicable to all races. I truly want everybody to achieve financial freedom sooner if they really want to. That’s the beauty of sharing knowledge for free on the internet!
However, given I’ve got an open mind, I took a look at the life expectancy by race to see if I could connect more dots.
U.S. Life Expectancy By Race
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Asian people have the longest life expectancy at 83.5 years. Hispanics have the second longest life expectancy at 77.7 years, followed by Whites at 76.4 years, Blacks at 70.8 years, and American Indian/Alaska Native at only 65.2 years.
Based on the data, if you want a higher chance of living longer, be born Asian! If you are not Asian, then maybe you’ll get luckier in the next life.
OK, if this advice rubs you the wrong way, now you know why I didn’t include race in the variable on life expectancy. There’s nothing you can do to change your race once you’re born to extend your life. But there are things you can do once you know the data.
We all must ask ourselves how much is one year of life worth? The greater you value time, the more you will welcome the below strategies. It’s just that by the time we start appreciating the value of time, we might be too old to change!
Marry An Asian Or Produce Offspring With An Asian
Although it might be too late for you, you can marry an Asian person who will hopefully live longer than you. Most of us would rather die before our life partners because it’s emotionally less painful.
Another strategy for living longer is producing offspring with an Asian person. Although this strategy won’t help you, you can help future generations potentially live longer. Helping your children may, in turn, help your legacy.
Given you aren’t Asian, your child won’t get the full benefit of the longer Asian life expectancy. But half the benefit is still about three years longer to live compared to the average life expectancy of the second longest-living race, Hispanics.
The problem with producing a child with an Asian person is that Asians only account for about 6.5% of the American population. As a result, Asians are relatively rare compared to Hispanics (19%), Blacks (14%), and Whites (62%). However, Asians are not as rare as Native Americans, who account for roughly 3% of the population.
In order to increase your chances of getting together with an Asian person, live where there are the most Asians in America.
Top 10 American Cities With The Most Asians As A Percentage Of The Total Population
As you can see from the chart below, if you want to increase your chances of finding an Asian life partner, move to Honolulu, Daly City, Fremont, Sunnyvale, Irvine, Santa Clara, Garden Grove, Torrance, San Francisco, or San Jose.
Hawaii and California are the two states with the most Asian people because they are the two states closest to Asian countries. It so happens that Hawaii and California also are two states with the highest life expectancies.
Once you know where the most Asian people live in America, it’s time to understand what Asians care about the most. The more you can understand a person’s culture, the easier it is to connect.
What Asians Care About
If you want to marry an Asian person, it’s important to learn about their specific customs.
Asians are not a monolith, so make sure you understand their specific culture, i.e. Japanese, Taiwanese, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hong Kongnese, Chinese, Cambodian, Indian, etc.
But in general, know that Asians care about:
- Education (highest percentage who attend college)
- Respect (filial piety, respecting one’s elders)
- Loyalty and stability (lowest divorce rates in America, homeownership)
- Honesty (lowest crime rates in America)
- Meritocracy (reward for hard work)
- Financial stability (careful with debt, honors financial contracts, high saving rate)
The more you care about the above six things, the greater your chances of creating a life with an Asian person who will likely live longer than you and produce children that may also live longer.
Example Of A Cultural Difference
Here’s an example that would mortify the vast majority of Asian people. Due to the importance of respect, Asian people would feel that leaving a mess in public is disrespectful to others.
Asian people would not expect a flight attendant to pick up after their kids. Instead, Asian parents would pick up the food, or more likely, the parents would tell their children to pick up after themselves! After all, if the children are old enough to operate electronic devices, they should know how to pick up their litter.
Leaving a place worse off than they found it is not the Asian way. There is a fear that if Asian people don’t teach their kids respect early on, they will grow up to be entitled and disrespectful as adults. Dishonoring the family name would be a great travesty.
You could see Asian culture in action when Japanese fans picked up trash in the stadium after every World Cup soccer match.
On the flip side, if you disrespect an Asian person, then an Asian person may feel more emotionally distraught or get much angrier than a non-Asian person.
But What About Money By Race?
OK, by now you are convinced that marrying or cohabitating with an Asian is a great idea. But what about the money aspect of it? After all, having more money generally provides more freedom and a better life.
Well, you’ll be interested to know that Asians have the highest median income in America as well. The median income for Asians in 2019 was $98,174. Some of the reasons for having the highest income include a focus on education, a greater percentage of workers in STEM fields, and higher-income immigrants.
In 2023, the median income for all races is likely 10% higher.
Income By Race
See the real median household income by race from 1967 to 2019 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Here is more income by race data for 2021 by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Income By Type Of Asian Person
Given Asians aren’t a monolith, here is more granular data about income by type of Asian person, according to the Pew Research Center.
Hence, if you really want to optimize for income, you may want to marry an Indian person, followed by a Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.
Net Worth By Race And Household Characteristics
Marrying a person who has a six-figure income will make life easier. But what about net worth? Here’s the latest data on net worth by race according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
As you can see toward the bottom of the chart, the median net worth for Asians in America was $206,400 in 2019, the highest net worth among all races. This makes sense given Asians earn the highest income and emphasize saving for financial security.
The 745 average credit score for Asian Americans came in 11 points higher than White Americans, who have an average credit score of 734. Asian American scores also came in ahead of Hispanic and Black Americans, who average ratings of 701 and 677, respectively.
Although, based on new legislation that passed on May 1, 2023, a disproportionate amount of Asian people may have to pay higher mortgage fees. Hence, if you marry an Asian person, try to marry one with an 800+ credit score. Once you’re in the 800+ range, you become a highly coveted borrower where banks often eat the higher fees to land your business.
The Richer You Are, The Longer You Want To Live
Based on the data, it sure looks like marrying an Asian person will increase your chances of becoming richer and living longer. Even if you don’t get richer and live longer being with an Asian spouse, you might appreciate the stability, integrity, honesty, and integrity of Asian culture.
If you do win the lottery, financially, you will want to live as long as possible. This way, the present value of your net worth grows even larger. Can you imagine winning a billion dollars and then dying the next day? Bad luck!
Hedging against bad luck is one of the reasons why the best age to retire is between 40-45. 22-27 years after high school is long enough to build a comfortable nest egg. If you end up dying on the earlier side (~60), at least you’ll have 15-20 years of maximum freedom.
A Richer Longer Life Is Within Your Reach
Here at Financial Samurai, we’re trying to minimize bad luck by understanding the landscape and taking action. Given we already know the states with the highest life expectancies, for a rich long life, marry an Asian person who lives in Hawaii or California.
If you can’t find an Asian person who lives in Hawaii or California, find an Asian person from anywhere and relocate to Hawaii or California. If you can’t afford to relocate to Hawaii or California, then you may want to relocate to a lower-cost state like Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin.
I still believe wealth, location, and social influences are the largest determinants of life expectancy. However, based on the data from the National Center for Health Statistics, race does seem to be a determinant in how long you live.
If you want a rich long life, now you’ve got a game plan to have one!
Reader Questions and Suggestions
How much do you think race plays a part in life expectancy? Why do you think Asians live the longest and have the highest income and net worth in America? What are some other strategies one can employ to live a rich long life?
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